WORLD’S SHEEP FLOCKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1922, Page 8

WORLD’S SHEEP FLOCKS.

t DECLINE IN NUMBERS. ■ OWNERS IN CONFERENCE.. NEW ZEALANDERS PRESENT. London, July 7. New Zealand was represented at the twenty-first International Conference of the National Sheep-breeders’ Association by Mr. M. Cohen (Manawatu and West Coast Agricultural and Pastoral Society), Mr. J. S. Jessep, Mr. T. H. Lowry, Mr. Basil Seth-Smith, and Mr. Alex. Crabb. The conference was held at Cambridge this week previous to the opening of the Royal Agricultural Show. Sir J. Cook represented Australia, and a number of the Dominions’ Agents-Generals were also present. Mr. H. Padwick (an ex-president of the association) read a paper on the “Serious Diminution of Breeding Flocks in Great Britain.” Taking the returns of breeding ewes as the guide to t7ie strength of the sheep-breeding industry in Britain, Mr. Padwick showed that the figure for 1921 of 8,118.000 marked a decline of nearly a million and a half since 1918. A number of causes, he maintained, had combined to bring about this unfortunate situation. Shortage of suitable labor was one of the first. Shepherds were for the most part sons of shepherds. Many of these lads had either been killed in the war or since had been attracted to the towns. Then the ploughing up of grass lands in 1917 and the increased use of artificial manures had tended to reduce the size of the flocks kept.

The Government control of mutton, with its standard price, put a premium on quantity and ignored quality, so that many of the older ewes went to the slaughter. The return to normal times had brought a fresh set of abnormalities. which tended to reduce sheepbreeding. Many big farms had been divided into smaller holdings, and in consequence the flocks had been dispersed. The scheme for settling ex-service men on the land and the development of small holdings had told against sheep. The day when farmers were prepared to keep sheep to enrich their land rather than to bring immediate profit seemed to have passed. A shortage of sheep meant a smaller production of corn, mutton, and wook the keeping of a smaller head of cattle, and in increase in unemployment. Equally serious was the necessity to fight the meat trusts by keeping up the Home supplies.

WORLD SHORTAGE OF FLOCKS. Speaking of the remedies, Mr. Padwick maintained that they must make use of the Press to the full. They must point out to every breeder that there was a national and also a world shortage of sheep; that simultaneously with this shortage the world’s’ population was rapidly increasing, and the number of prospective customers multiplying; that as the war-devastated countries recuperate they will set about replenishing their stock of woollen goods. They must impress upon the breeders of pedigree sheep that the demand for mutton and wool would bring in its train the demand for the best animals to produce these. That from whatever part of the wdrld the inquiry might come, through the extraordinary variety of their breeds, reliable stock could be supplied to meet practically any requirements as to type, and any conditions of soil and climate. They must remind the ordinary farmer that economy must be the watchword of the day. and that for the conservation of soil fertility sheep were unrivalled. The consumer must be convinced that no meat in the world was equal to home-killed mutton, nor any so wholesome and digestible. Then there should be co-operation and complete organisation for the collection 1 , grading, and marketing of wool. It was worth consideration whether this was not an idea] time for the farmer to get into more direct touch with the consumer by setting up all over the country cooperative slaughter-houses.

WORLD’S STATISTICS. The speaker saw in the decrease of sheep overseas the opportunity for the sheep-breeders of Britain. A study of the statistics of the world’s sheep population was encouraging to the Home breeder, so far as the figures were at present available. The United States of America showed a loss of over one and a half million in 1921. as compared with 1920; New Zealand of considerably over half a million; Germany of over a quarter of a million; while Canada, which was expected to show an increase, had a falling off of about 45,000. For Australia the latest completed returns were for 1919, and these showed a loss on the previous year of no less than 11A millions, but Spain, in the same period, improved her position by D/a millions. The last returns for France and South Africa are those for 1920. France showed an increase of over a quarter of a million. South Africa a decrease of over three-quarters of a million. For Argentina and Chile the latest census was taken in 191 S, but the Governments of both those countries had stated that their floeks show a dangerous diminution. The president, Captain R. S. Hicks, said the question was not an insular one, because it must, after a while, have an effect upon their overseas friends, who sometimes came to them for fresh blood. Sir Joseph Cook urged the conference to consider very carefully the virtues of co-operative handling of their business. There need be no jealousy between producers at Home and producers in Australia.